Dunbar under 15s played host to Penicuik at Hallhill, yes you read it correctly at Hallhill. This was the team’s first home match of the season due to their previous opponents pulling out of the league. The Dunbar boys were fresh from a photo shoot at the new Taylor Wimpey site in Dunbar. The local house builders are sponsoring the team strips for a two year period.
Their opponents today have had a pretty rough ride this season but arrived with 17 players. Dunbar threatened through Josh Stewart straight from the kick off. A great solo run saw Stewart burst into the visitors twenty two only to see his pass to Matty Pickles knocked on. Dunbar had clearly shown their intention early on and it was not to be long before the first score came on 2 minutes. A Penicuik clearance kick up field was met by Rogan Paul who stormed deep into the twenty two where he offloaded to the supporting Jack Armstrong to score in the corner.
From the kick off the ball was gathered by Finlay Darrah who burst down the right hand side to run behind the posts to score what was a superb solo effort. Josh Stewart added the extra points to give the home team a 12-0 lead after only the third minute.
Penicuik had sustained injuries to two of their players and had to make changes. With 12 minutes gone the Penicuik efforts were further dented when Rogan Paul burst through on the left flank to score. Jack Young added the extra points as Dunbar barely got out of second gear.
On 14 minutes Dunbar were to score again through Jamie McIvor who finished off a great move by his back division. With three minutes remaining of the first half Dunbar hit Penicuik with a brace of tries. Firstly Josh Stewart burst through then Frankie McDonald went over the whitewash. Darrah drop kicked the first conversion and then Jack Young converted the McDonald try to finish the first half scoring at 40-0.
Dunbar now made several changes to allow their fringe players some quality game time.
With barely a minute of the second half Dunbar had scored again through Tom Wight. Jack Young put over a monumental kick from the touchline to add the extra points. With 23 minutes played Rogan Paul made one of his dashing runs for the line but instead of scoring made the pass to the supporting Matty Pickles who gratefully accepted the pass to score. Jack Armstrong added the extra points to extend the Dunbar lead to 54-0. Josh Nicol would be next up to score for Dunbar as he finished off in the corner. Another massive touchline conversion by Jack Young extended the home lead.
Almost from the kick off Cameron McFaddyn burst through from his own twenty two to score a great solo try. Struan Fenn was the fourth Dunbar player to convert a try as his side moved clear by sixty eight points to nil. With 5 minutes remaining of the half Jack Armstrong scored what would be the final try of the match. Jack then converted his own try to finish the scoring at 75¬-0.
Great credit to Penicuik for sticking in and competing right to the end. The match goes down as a 50-0 result under league rules.
Dunbar then gave Penicuik several of their better players to play a twenty minute development match. The home team were more or less unstoppable as they scored another five tries through Nicol, Young, Pickles and a brace from McFaddyn. Penicuik came back with a nice try of their own with three minutes remaining. Not to be outdone Dunbar had the final say when Rogan Paul added a sixth try. Armstrong converted four and Young the other to complete the scoring.
Dunbar 115 Penicuik 5